The Bounty of Summer - Strattu

I know... I know.... I've been really bad about updating my blog. This is a post that should have been written months ago. Better late than never.

Now that's winter as set in, I can't help but think about this pass summer. I framed my garden in the spring, got some great dirt from the Duke of Dirt and proceeded to have a fantastic crop. For a couple of weeks, I was pulling about 10 lbs of Roma tomatoes off of 4 plants!

Now what to do with so many tomatoes? The first thing I decided to make was Strattu. Not sure where I found out about Strattu but sounded interesting and was a great way to get rid of a whole lot of tomatoes.

Essentially Strattu is a really thick clay like tomato paste that is made in Italy. In the heat of late summer, Roma tomatoes are processed through a fine screen food mill, placed into shallow trays and left to dry in the sun. Since the Chicago area doesn't have the summer heat of Southern Italy, I had to turn to the oven.

Strattu is something that takes 2 days to make. It's best to start on a Saturday so that it can be finished on Sunday. It's easy but time consuming. I found the method for making Strattu here.

First thing to do is to quarter as many Roma tomatoes as you can and place them into a stock pot. You need to use meaty tomatoes like Romas since there is less water in them. Salt and then heat until the tomatoes give up their water to fill the stock pot half way. This should take about 15 min. Turn off the heat, cover the pot and let the tomatoes sit for 30 to 40 minutes. This ensures that the tomatoes are soft enough to go through a food mill. Now the messy fun begins!

Using the smallest screen size you have, start processing those soften tomatoes through a food mill. This will get rid of all the skins and seeds leaving you with just the tomato meat... very liquidy meat.

Scoop the tomatoes into the processor and start turning... turning..... and turning. You will have to clean out the food mill discarding the skins and seeds. Keep processing until all the tomatoes have gone through the mill.

Once you have processed all the tomatoes, place the juice on to shallow pans.  I had enough to fill 2 large pans. Heat your oven to 250º. This next part I was very hesitant to do. I've always been told that tomato leaves are poisonous and should never be used but adding leaves will enhance the tomato flavor.  Taking caution aside, I added about 5 or 6 leaves per tray. Upon further reading, I found that tomato are poisonous but you would have to eat so much of it to feel it's deadly effect.

I know have 2 large trays with my tomatoes and leaves placing them in to the oven. Every couple of hours I would go and stir the tomatoes up. After about 6 or 8 hours in the oven, I turned the heat down to 200º leaving it on for 4 more hours. After being in the oven for about 12 to 13 hours, I turned off he oven, removed the tomato leave and left the trays in over night. By this time the juice should be thickening up very nicely.

The next morning, I turned the oven back on to 200º. I think for me at this time,  enough moisture was removed to combine both trays into one. During the second day, the Strattu needs to be stir once every hour for 6 to 8 hours. Towards the end of the second day, the Strattu will need to be folded every 30 minutes. By now it will become a very very thick paste... almost like clay and with a beautiful deep red color. This is when you know it's done.

Out of about 20 lbs of tomatoes and 2 days of cooking, this is what I have. I deep red jar of summer with a unbelievable flavor.